This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
OREM - When you weigh 285 pounds, it is probably a little easier to lose 10 pounds than if you start out at, oh, 150 pounds. But it is still pretty tough.
Brighton's Junior Salt, a senior, did that before the Rocky Mountain Rumble wrestling tournament this weekend at Utah Valley State College, dropping to 275 so he could qualify for the heavyweight division. But he said it was worth it.
Salt won the individual championship, the first time he has won a tournament this large, by downing Jesse Gonzales of Eagle, Idaho, 12-5 in the final. Salt had three pins in his five matches and helped lead the Bengals to a second-place finish in the team race.
"If it weren't for wrestling, I would weigh more than 300 pounds," Salt said. "I have to do some major running, but this is the reward."
As expected, Wasatch won the team championship, despite having just one individual winner, sophomore Jake Salazar. The Wasps had 183 points, while Brighton had 173.5 and third-place Springville had 160.
"We like to keep our reputation as Utah's best team," Salazar said. "It is not in our tradition to lose."
This tournament has existed for more than a decade, but this is the first time it has been held at UVSC and included 40 teams from eight states. Organizers would like to eventually expand it to 64 teams and make it one of the premier prep wrestling events in the country.
"There was great wrestling here," said Wasatch coach Ben Vom Baur.
In all, 11 different schools had champions. Brighton, Springville and Millard had two apiece.
The only downer for Wasatch was that it went 1-3 in the finals, with only Salazar winning. Salazar beat Sean Porter of Davis at 140, the third time this season that Salazar has beat Porter, a defending 5-A state champion.
"I've got him figured out," Salazar said, "and that's nice."
In the best championship bout of the night, Kurt Swartz of Auburn, Wash., who has signed with Boise State, defeated Wasatch's Carson Brown 4-2 with a takedown in the final 10 seconds. Swartz is now 25-0, while Brown, who also lost in the final seconds of his championship match in Reno, is 23-2.
"They battled, and I'm proud of how Carson wrestled," Vom Baur said. "He could have won."
Along with Swartz, Millard's Mason Stott and Brighton's Talan Knox stayed undefeated and won titles. Stott is now 39-0 at 119 and Knox is 36-0 at 160.
Other champions were Pleasant Grove's Keola Goodman (103), Springville's Kolby Bradley (112) and Jason Chamberlain (125), Millard's Mark Pentz (130) , Provo's Nathanie Holt (145), Tel Todd of Bozeman, Mont. (152), Northridge's Mark Dennis (189), Marshall Pirtz of Centennial, Idaho (215) and Levi Jones of Lakeside, Wash. (135).